Saturday, July 11, 2009

This time I'd better come through with the good stuff,as promised before. And you know what? I just might.

This animation is painted on paper and made for a school assignmentcalled the Remake, which was exactly that, expecting us—hungry students— to remake (and —no pun intended— reanimate)the work of an artist who's work we admired.

My pick was Georg Baselitz, for more reasons than I am willing to typeabout right now. Since my work tends to be quite fragile I'm alwayslooking for ways to be more bold in my expressions and Baselitzseemed to me the appropriate vehicle to get there.Apart from that I'm always looking for ways to make my charactersmore stylized, without them becoming too cartoonish or childish.In my opinion Baselitz is really great at this.

Naturally I couldn't leave it at that, so I added several other studies:

To not scale anything digitally, but just draw and paint it smaller ifneeded. Personally, I hate outlines that become thicker or thinner whenanything animated moves closer or further away respectively.

To animate a transition from one scene to another and make it a partof the narrative (instead of just using a standard cut/wipe/dissolve).When I scanned the animation and put it on a timeline it turned outthe narrative part didn't work out as well as I had meant it to be:I had two scenes, one indoors with a man in the foreground and ajacket in the background which the man puts on. Plus one outdoorsat night with a house set against a minimal background.

A door opens, lighting the landscape, but the door is on the side ofthe house we don't see, leaving us to just see the light coming out of it.But since the painted animation makes for such a strong moving hold,one doesn't notice this light at all and what we see is a man putting ona jacket whilst morphing to another image.

It's sad, isn't it? But at least we can learn something from these terribleflaws, don't we, hopefuls?Enjoy. And laugh at me laying bare my pity attempts at makingsomething that legitimizes my existence.But know that while you're laughing, I'm learning,and one day all these lessons will fall into place.Then I might make something you want to see, but I won't let you,because you laughed. Sweet revenge.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Okay, so this is fairly old.It's done on paper (!), which I like, and again this could have beenbetter, but there was just not enough room for improvement.Lame excuse, I know, but next time I'll remember these flaws anddo it better. I promise.

I should make more walkcycles I guess, it's good practice.

My notes on this one:

• The head needs some more attention, period;• The upper half of his torso needs some more anticipation;• His hands need to turn more;• His right arm has one frame of inconsistent length, making it morph.

Apart from it being on paper, it's on triples as well,whereas I mostly animate on doubles, thus revealing the economic me.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Now I can't go to bed and not upload my animation of the cat I mentioned in my previous post. The assignment was to find or make a 10 second audio fragment to animate upon. I chose a piece of dialogue from Lock, Stock and animated these bad-ass wiseguy cats. It's lipsync was the main goal, but my personal agenda was especially drawn to the possibilities 2D offers that 3D can't and the problems that present themselves animating these lines that do not bow before realism.

After this one I'll post some animation again,mainly because these sketches contains a reincarnation of a cat I animated.

Conchita drew a quick line for this one, and I had to finish and make something out of it.

This little birdy here just begs for improvement, and I will, but not yet. I like the idea and want to animate it when ready.

So, here it is:The cat that — like Cordell Barker's — just keeps on coming back. Nine lives would be nice I guess, though the nine deaths that inherently come paired with them would kill me.Pun intended. Sorry for that. It's in my genes. Or my upbringing. Or both.

Today I figured it a great day to provide you with some sketches,as we all know how important frequently drawing is if one desires improvement.Now you may decide whether I can live up to my desires, because improvement is what I seek, although I'm not sure how conscious an effort I make drawing in my sketchbook.Most of all I guess I just sketch whatever is on my mind or catches my eyes.

What is your main reason for sketching?Is it practice?Is it an addiction?A basic need?A reminder?All of the above?Something entirely else?

Would you consider it an important activity?I know I do. And of course I should practice more.And there's tons of other stuff I'd want or should do more,but I simply can't and have to focus on just a few things.

Association of the day:“Look, I've never had a dream in my lifeBecause a dream is what you wanna do, but still haven't pursuedI knew what I wanted and did it till it was doneSo i've been the dream that I wanted to be since day one...”

About The Spoof

I study Animation at Utrecht School of the Arts. Most of my time is spent working on animations, graphic design and illustrations. Nowadays my biggest wish is to have the time to make some more music again.